Dear Diary: April 2023 - the one with two fewer chooks

WEATHER:

Cold change in early April, after a warm and lovely March.

RAIN

Spatters here and there, at one stage there was enough to fill the tanks, but then I opened the stopcock on the carport tanks and they've been pretty much empty since. Stagnant, too. Once the windows are done, I should disconnect them and clean them out.

CHOOKS:

Coldie died on Easter Monday, followed a week later by Shan. They were both sick, both had gone to the vet in the previous month but died overnight.

RIP 'The Banquet': our 'lockdown chooks'.

Q1, now known as Carambah (Caramel), is laying decent sized eggs. Q2, now known as Choquette (Choux Pastry) hasn't even got her comb in! it's really weird. She looks like a large-sized pullet, while Carambah looks like a full layer bird!

It's a bit weird without any of our 'older' chooks. I can't explain why, it just is.

OBSERVATIONS

Everything is dropping leaves and dying. The backyard is full of things mulching and it's not idea. I really need to hire those JW kids to come round, pull up the grass, put the cardboard down, and cover the paths with mulch.

PREPARATION:

Winter is coming: need to think about what I'm going to plant where and for what purpose...

I might just pull up the tomatoes in the APRICOT-AVO bed, because they're not actually producing anything, and maybe pull up the bed itself so it can go back to the grassy/herbal area that I'm planning for it...

PLANTING

Planted out a bunch of brassicas in the APPLE-CREPE bed, watered them in with brassica water (rotted purchased brassicas) so they get the nutrients to grow and flower.

RIPENING

Pomegranates: not sure when to harvest them.

Tomatoes - some of the late varieties I planted - might be the Blue Smurf, or the other ones I got from Elisha (I think; look it up)

HARVEST

Pomegranates. Persimons. Pumpkins. Lots of Ps in there.

Also: Avocadoes!

PRUNING

EVERYTHING needs pruning and chipping and digging up. All the grass in the backyard.

THOUGHTS

We have the windows in as of ANZAC day and that's a relief. There's still some sealing up to do: both along the skirting boards and along the undersides/tops of the windows. I need to find somewhere that sells the kind of filler that they were using (turns out it's Anywhere That Isn't Hammerbarn). Also need to pry open a skirting board somewhere where it won't be too spotted and see what it looks like there... Could be a bit hairy!

Maybe leave that for Saturday.